The Mountain Meditation This meditation will last for about 12 minutes.
This is the Mountain Meditation.
It can be helpful to bring the qualities of the mountain into our meditation practice and into our lives to help us support the present moment with a spacious dignity.
You may choose to do the Mountain Meditation standing and if you choose this,
Notice if you have to change your position and sit down,
Doing what is right for you,
Or you may choose to sit on a seat or a crossed leg,
On a cushion or stool on the floor.
So now,
We can begin by settling into our meditation posture.
Taking your seat.
Sitting with dignity.
Taking your awareness to the connection with your feet and the floor.
Sensing the points of contact of the feet.
Really noticing those points with the feet and the floor.
In contact.
And then moving your awareness up through the legs to the pressure of the sit bones,
The buttocks against the chair,
Or whatever it is you are sitting on.
And notice the details of those pressure points.
The sense of the weight of you going down,
Rooted to the ground.
And the height of you going up,
The spine strong,
Erect and dignified.
And having a sense of space above your head,
Behind you,
And in front,
And beside you,
So that you are sitting like a mountain.
Sitting with presence and dignity.
And now,
Bringing to mind a mountain.
Maybe one that is familiar to you.
One you've seen in a picture.
Or one that you are constructing in your mind's eye.
Maybe one that you've climbed.
So bringing that mountain into your mind.
And noticing the overall shape.
The lofty peak,
Or peaks.
Reaching up.
Maybe the top of the mountain is flat.
Noticing how the base of the mountain connects with the ground.
And becomes rooted in the rock of the earth's crust.
The sloping sides.
And as you focus on the image in your mind.
Noticing how massive your mountain is.
How still.
How beautiful.
And however it is to you.
However you see it in your mind's eye.
Breathing with this image of the mountain.
And when you are ready.
Inviting you as best you can to bring the image of the mountain directly into your body.
So that your body and the image of the mountain become one.
As if your head becomes the peak of the mountain,
High up in the sky.
The base of you sitting here connected to the ground and to your seat.
Becomes like the base of the mountain.
Really in touch with and as one with the earth.
Your shoulders and arms.
Like the slopes of the mountain.
Just sitting and breathing.
Breathing in and out of your body.
Of your mountain body.
And allowing the breath to just move freely.
Sitting here as breathing mountain.
Rooted.
Reaching up into the space of the sky around you.
And notice how moment by moment the light changes on the mountain.
The sun comes up and shines light on you as mountain.
Perhaps noticing clouds,
Maybe casting a shadow on the slopes of you.
Noticing perhaps how the shadows move across the surface.
Perhaps noticing gentle rain falling on you as the clouds release their moisture.
And as the sun moves up,
Perhaps it casts more heat on you.
And then as the day travels on through the afternoon and evening,
The sun goes down.
Sunset.
Colours in the sky around you.
Night comes.
And the moon casts its silver light all around you.
Maybe stars in the inky night sky.
Just sitting here as the mountain.
And seasons come and go.
The new green growth perhaps of spring.
Warmth,
Colour and abundance of summer.
Perhaps there's laughter on the mountain.
People walking,
Hiking,
Climbing.
And then the changing seasons as autumn comes.
And the colours change to rust and gold.
And then winter.
It's cold on the mountain.
Water freezing.
Maybe snow on the peak.
Just noticing how changes in the season come and go.
And the mountain just sits.
Storms may come.
Turbulence,
Wind,
Rain,
Hail.
Enormous storms that stir up your plants and trees.
Crashing into you.
And throughout it all,
Even through the strongest storm,
The mountain sits.
Unmoved by the weather.
Whatever is happening on the surface.
So as we sit,
Holding the image of mountain in the mind's eye.
We can take in the unwavering stillness.
The rootedness of constant change.
Taking that into our lives.
Moment by moment.
We too experience periods of light and dark.
Stillness and movement.
Happiness and sadness.
We too experience storms of various intensity and violence.
In our own lives.
In the world outside around us.
We too endure pain and darkness as well as light and joy.
Moment by moment.
Day by day.
Constant change in appearance and mood.
Just like the mountain.
So as we sit,
Like mountain,
Rooted and dignified.
Calm.
Calmness abiding all change.
Knowing that storms may come and storms may go.
And we can just sit,
Just like the mountain does.
And so,
Inviting you now to continue to sit like the mountain.
Breathing with the mountain.
Until the bell rings at the end of this meditation practice.
Calmness abiding all change.
Sitting and breathing with the mountain.
